CHAPTER II 



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SPONTANEOUS GENERATION 



Introduction. In early times it was the general belief 

 of most people who did not accept as literal the Biblical ac- 

 count of the creation of the world that many forms of life 

 could arise de now. This idea or theory is usually spoken 

 of as the theory of spontaneous generation, or abiogenesis. 



Early Period. At first it was supposed that many higher 

 forms of life, including some of the birds and mammals, could 

 arise in this way. For example, among the early Greeks we 

 find that Anaximander of Miletus held that animals were 

 formed from moisture, and Empedocles of Agrigentum be- 

 lieved that all of the living beings on the earth arose through 

 spontaneous generation. Aristotle, while not having such 

 general belief in this theory, does assert that " sometimes 

 animals are formed in putrefying soil, sometimes in plants, 

 sometimes in the fluids of other animals." He also stated 

 that " every dry substance which becomes moist, and every 

 moist body which becomes dry, produces living creatures, 

 provided it is fit to nourish them." Later we find Ovid de- 

 fending this doctrine, and in the Middle Ages Von Helmont 

 gives directions for the artificial production of mice which 



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